1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a shredder and, in particular, to a shredder that changes its opening width to a narrower default state to prevent the user's fingers from being hurt. To back paper out, the opening width of the shredder is changed to a wider default state for the user to take out the paper.
2. Related Art
To prevent such documents as legal files, receipts, invoices, credit card numbers, research reports, or personal financial information (e.g., credit card and phone bills) from being released, it is common to destroy them using a shredder. Therefore, the shredder has become an indispensable device for both business and home applications.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued document No. 5127 in response to paper shredder safety alert. The document reminded families with shredders to be cautious about the safety in operating the shredders. It pointed out that 31 cases of finger injuries from operating shredders have been the received reports between January 2000 and December 2003, and most of the people who got hurt were children aged from 14 months to 2 years, particularly the toddlers. This is because children at these ages like to mimic adults and play shredder without the adult's supervision. It is not guaranteed that no accident will happen even under the adult's supervision. This is because the pulling force exert by the shredder on the paper is very large. If the fingers holding the paper do not let go, the pulling force may also pull the fingers into the shredder opening and cause injuries.
Therefore, the CPSC cautioned consumers about the following things:
Do not let children to operate shredders by themselves. Even under supervision, the adult should know that there is a risk that the pulling force of the shredder may be strong enough to pull children's fingers into the shredder opening.
1. Keep shredders away from children.
2. Unplug the shredder when not in use.
3. Do not put hands or fingers on the shredder.
4. Do not operate shredders when wearing clothes with loose ends or strips to avoid being pulled into the shredder opening.
5. Keep an appropriate distance between the tie or zipper and the shredder opening.
The opening width of the usual shredder is about 6 mm. Such an opening width may be large enough for children to put in their fingers and get hurt. Some people think that such injuries can be prevented by shrinking the opening width. Nevertheless, the opening width has to satisfy the requirement of feeding and backing paper (the auto and rev functions, respectively). Therefore, in addition to feeding paper into the shredder for shredding, the design has to allow backing paper out when it is jammed. A narrow opening width would be difficult for backing out paper. Therefore, simply shrinking the width of the shredder opening cannot truly resolve the safety problem.